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Dunn trial similar to, different from other high-profile Florida cases

The Michael Dunn trial has been compared to other high-profile capital cases in Florida, such as the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman trials.

With these cases in mind, the court system has handled the Dunn case in a way that reflects lessons learned from these prior cases, said Dale Carson, a Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer.

One of the key differences between the Dunn trial and other high-profile trials is how long the case lasted. Friday was the eighth day of the Dunn case.

Zimmerman was on trial for about three weeks, and Anthony was on trial for about six weeks.

The efficiency of the trial had a lot to do with Judge Russell Healey.

Healey is known as a tough, no-nonsense judge, Carson said. He keeps control over the courtroom and sets strict rules, even if that makes some people unhappy.

Carson pointed to Healey’s ruling that the materials shared between the prosecution and defense couldn’t be released to the public until 30 days after the point when they typically become public record.

The decision, Healey previously stated, was to keep details of the case from leaking out, which would make it difficult to find an unbiased jury.

Several media outlets including The Times-Union sued and an appeals court threw out the judge’s order.

“He’s not concerned with the political ramifications of that in the face of a proper trial,” Carson said.

Jeff Deal, a reporter for WFTV Eyewitness News in Orlando, covered the Casey Anthony trial in 2011. He said Healey keeps his courtroom well organized.

“It seems like the judge is more serious in this courtroom” than other cases he’s seen, Deal said.

Carson also said the state seemed to learn from mistakes made during the Zimmerman trial and used strategies that could help their case.

Rather than introducing Dunn’s statement to police at the start of the trial, prosecutors waited until Dunn already had testified. This made it possible to note any discrepancies in the two accounts, he said.

He said the prosecution also chose prepared, articulate attorneys to speak the state’s case at closing arguments.

“You can see that they’re prepared here,” he said. “The State Attorney’s Office has gone to school with what they’d done in Orlando.”